Statement by Yasuchika Hasegawa, Chairman of Keizai Doyukai
Regarding the result of the United States Presidential Election

November 7, 2012

Yasuchika Hasegawa
Chairman, Keizai Doyukai

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On November 6th, the United States of America chose the incumbent President Barack Obama as its next president. The United States will soon face a “Fiscal Cliff” at the end of the year, and in the medium- to long-term, the country needs to restore fiscal soundness, to return to stable economic growth, and to ensure employment recovers. On the foreign policy front, there are concerns and challenges in Syria, Iran and East Asia.

In his second term, President Obama need not worry about re-election. Without this concern, I hope the President is able to execute policies focused on achieving stable economic growth (include potentially tough and unpopular reforms) by engaging Congress and persuading them through active discussion.

It is forecast that there is likely to be no significant change in the U.S. foreign policy toward Japan. Despite the fact that current circumstances call for stronger U.S.-Japan relations, it has been unfortunate that under the Democratic Party of Japan, Japan’s own foreign policy toward the U.S. has lacked consistency and has been partially inappropriate.

Japan's delay in participating in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the latest contradictory energy and nuclear power policy should not hurt the future of U.S.-Japan relations. It is in the national interest of Japan to closely cooperate with the United States as its most trusted partner country and to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance. I sincerely hope that the Japanese government will further proceed in this direction with the second Obama administration of the United States.

Japanese version